Hello all,

I promised a Rick Grimes fanfiction. I love Rick Grimes. I love his character. And I really want to play around with him on this fiction, hehe.

I had written one but it wasn't to my liking. I am not even sure if I like this one necessarily.
I've chosen to approach this differently. It will take me a few chapters to come close to Rick and evolving in that part. It actually takes me a few chapters to get into the group with Rick.
If you don't like that then find another story. I just want to try and be creative.

If you want to be a beta reader then please let me know, I think I need one, especially for this story.

Let me know what you think. The more reviews the quicker I seem to update. ;-)

Kisses!

Chapter 1 – The walking dead

Everything apart from the crunching of their shoes and the heavy breathing coming from Ruth, was silent. And usually that would have been a good sign but after the last couple of days it was uncomfortable. And they were all waiting for a moment it went completely to shit again.

They were all lost in their own thoughts while trying to keep track of any potential danger around them. Alex was the one making the decisions and the others followed without a lot of hesitation.
They needed someone calling the shots, who otherwise would?

Taylor wasn't emotional stable. He had lost his wife the day they were forced to take the threats seriously. If Alex and Anne hadn't seen her walking up to them in the middle of the street, trying to take a bite of Alex, they all would probably still be in denial.

Anne wondered if it was her fault that they didn't take the radio and television news seriously. But it hadn't sounded all that serious either. There probably was a virus. But as a dentist working in the hospital she hadn't heard of any cases in that particular hospital so Alex, the surgeon there and Taylor the neurosurgeon told her that it probably was an out-break somewhere else. And then when people started talking about dead people rising and eating other people they just laughed it off.

Taylor and Alex had dismissed the possibility straight away. Especially Taylor was fierce in defending his point. He, as a neurosurgeon just knew that there was not one possibility of dead people rising. Once the brain was dead, nothing could keep the internal organs alive but a machine. And what need would a dead people feel to eat other dead people? It was just a hoax, a story that got out of hand, first a virus and suddenly they were dealing with the walking dead. It made both the boys laugh out loud.

But if she would've made more of point out of it. If she would've listened to the people around her, some of her co-workers. Wynona, the nurse who had to get on an airplane home quickly because her mother was bitten by something. It all made sense now.

Then there was Ruth, Dave and Leona. Family Peterson had somehow survived against all odds. Anne kind of looked at this in a way of survival of the fittest almost as they were making their way to Alex and Anne's house; they were next door neighbors and next to Anne lived the family Peterson. And while Alex had to bash in skulls as they heard on the radio was their only form of protection, suddenly Ruth, Dave and Leona ran from their backyard into him. Anne hadn't even thought about checking up on them since the only survivors they had seen since it all seemed to have exploded in their faces in one day, were already packed in cars and driving towards Atlanta, Fort Benning or New Orleans. Dallas, Texas and Fort worth were of limit they were told; it was overrun already.

"Shhh" suddenly Alex hissed through the silence and they all stood still.

"What? What did ya hear?" Ruth hissed in a frenzy pushing her husband to the side and making her way towards Alex. Anne grabbed her arm quickly pulling her back harshly.

"Alex was giving you a nicer way to shut the fuck up, so do it or I'll knock your ass out" Anne hissed to the woman, her impatience showing clearly. Her survival was depending on this group and Ruth was most certainly not getting in the way.

Ruth was an overweight woman in her 50's. She didn't work out regularly and she didn't eat always healthy as she enjoyed a passion for baking. It wasn't the best qualities to surviving something which forces you to run from it.

A few hours ago they were still in possession of a vehicle. But as they were standing in traffic waiting for it to move very slowly, trying to get to New Orleans; they were soon forced to abandon it as hundreds of people before them started running the opposite direction. Leaving their cars behind and screaming bloody murder. Right after that they saw a whole lot of them walking dead coming their way and there was no other way but to leave their car behind as well.

"is it just the one?" Taylor asked Alex as they all huddled close together a little back into the bushes, as what was left of a woman came stumbling out of the woods.

Was it following them around?
And if she was following them around, were there more?

Alex shrugged his shoulders but volunteered silently to step forward and ram his butcher knife through its skull. It fell to the ground and as Alex turned around Ruth gasped. Alex's face was covered in splutters blood running down his neck into his black t-shirt.
Anne stepped forward quickly, pulling a towel out of her backpack and placing it on Alex's face. For some reason the look of the handsome man covered in blood, was just too confronting. She cleaned him off softly and didn't miss the heartbroken sigh coming from him.

"Don't" Anne softly said scanning his face. He looked her in the eyes and bit his lip in frustration. "But I-" he spoke up but stopped as Anne placed a hand on his chest. "I know… I know, believe me. We all don't know how to make sense of all this. But if it weren't for you we wouldn't have come as far as we did right now. So just keep doing what you do. We'll have your back, and don't over-analyze this situation. It's a hard thing to do, from a medical point of view this just doesn't add up, I know, I really do…"

Alex sighed placing both his hands on his hips and looking at the others who were still huddled together.
It was a miserable position they were in. The only people who had any chance of actually arriving in Atlanta were Anne, Taylor and himself. But they were being held back by the family Peterson.

Ruth had always been nice to Alex, always wanting to talk to him and know more about him. He used to wonder if it really was because she found him interesting or that she liked any attention of any man. Dave was always quiet and reversed. Oddly enough a lawyer and it made Anne and himself laugh hysterically at times as he would pretend to be submissive lawyer Dave. Leona was a 25 year old girl whom had been spoiled. She wanted to be a model someday but even though her parents believed it, everyone else could clearly see that she didn't really put much afford into becoming one. She had been pregnant three months before but had lost her child to a miscarriage and ever since then she had been a depressed mess.

It wouldn't be easy to get them over alive and all well but he would try, as long as he had the help of Taylor and Anne he might even succeed.

"We have to set up a camp soon." He said as he walked closer to his group. Smiling calmly at each of them but Anne saw right through it. She knew him well enough. Taylor seemed to notice too, as he placed a hand on Alex's shoulder and nodded his head in approval.

Alex was the only one level headed enough to show them the way. And he had already earned their respect for it. As Anne, Taylor, Ruth, Dave and Leona had been freaking out before Alex had been the one to make sure they all went the right direction. He had brought maps, and he had written down the list that the broadcasts were talking about. He had made a few choices and as New Orleans fell through he decided to head to Atlanta. Usually, driving from Jackson, Mississippi to Atlanta, Georgia, it would take 5 to 8 hours. And Anne wondered how long it would take doing it on foot...

"Camp?" Ruth asked looking around her. She seemed to notice for the first time in the past 12 hours that they were walking through a forest and there was no sign of civilization nearby.

"Yea, camp" Alex confirmed "It would be unsafe walking in the dark. We'd never know what would come our way. If we'd make camp and take turns to watch for dangers…. Perhaps we'd make it through the night without too much hassle"

Taylor nodded his head in agreement. "We'd be better off if we walked up hill a bit though… Seeing it coming quicker" he tried, thinking with Alex. And Alex too agreed.

"But we don't have tents, nothing!" Ruth exclaimed, just a few seconds away from blowing into a full panic attack once again. "I have sleeping bags, I brought three…" Anne offered looked at Taylor and Alex in hopes for one more so they'd all be sleeping warm tonight.

"Well, I'll be taking first watch, that way you can make use of my bag, Anne. Then after three hours I'll switch with Taylor, sleep in his, and like that we trade" Alex offered straight away. She had never seen him like that before. He was a good friend to her, but she never really noticed his talent of thinking in solutions; he probably had been good in it all along otherwise he wouldn't have been a surgeon. But as he shone through as a good man, taking action and taking the lead in this, she couldn't help but feel proud of him.

Ruth wanted to say more but one glare coming from Anne she pressed her thin lips together and kept quiet.

Ruth and Anne always were alright together. She didn't know Ruth too well but she didn't mind her company. And it seemed the same the other way around. Ruth always baked chocolate chipped cupcakes for her and Anne would eat all 10 of them in one evening if she'd be on her period.

But Ruth was a complainer. It hadn't been that annoying when they were having conversations from time to time, but right now, when no one had time for complaints, it started to push Anne further towards the edge. The only thing they could do was move forward, in hopes of getting to Atlanta as quickly as possible to find other survivors. To hopefully be able to pull through all this until there was a cure.

But as she lay down that night, in Alex's army printed sleeping bag she wondered if they would ever arrive in Atlanta.

Alex and Taylor both had a gun, as they had been to the shooting range every two weeks on Friday night, they knew how to handle a gun. They were strong, fit and obviously were prepared to do whatever they had to, to get to Atlanta breathing. Even though Taylor had lost his wife, he had not given up on his will to live.

And even though Anne was psychically in condition; she jogged a lot with Alex, and always went to the gym with both of them after their shifts at the hospital, she had never touched a gun. She didn't know how to fight as she never had to. She stared at the hammer that she lay close to her head in case she'd need it. But if she really did need it, would she be able to? Could she kill someone?